Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom

2016

Animation /

Synopsis

After visiting his father in Arkham Sanitarium, young Howard Lovecraft accidentally uses the legendary Necronomicon to open a portal to a strange frozen world filled with horrifying creatures and a great adventure.

Young Howard Lovecraft begins his adventure by going to the Butler Sanitarium with his mother to visit his father Winfield Lovecraft, a patient there who has been driven mad by something he's done. Howard's father goes into a spasm of paranoia and fear, begging his son to destroy a book that he should have never written. The boy doesn't scream during the incident, but does go home with a small gift - a paper star made by his father. Once home, Howard's curiosity is too much and he begins to read his father's book. He's drawn into a dark, cold world of magic and deceit. The book tells of a place - R'yleh - a "kingdom described as an unholy marriage of fairy tales and nightmares." Unwittingly, the boy reads a few words written in the book in a strange language - and is sucked through a whole in the fabric of the universe. He meets a Deep One, Thu Thu Hmong, who initially tries to eat Howard but comes around after the boy saves the creature's life. Howard, who fails to pronounce the ...

Director

Cast

Tech specs

1080p 720p

1.98 GB

1920 x 1080

Normal

English

23.976 fps /

83 min

P/S 0 / 6

713.80 MB

1280 x 720

Normal

English

23.976 fps /

83 min

P/S 0 / 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Paul Magne Haakonsen5/10

I am somewhat at a loss at how I feel about &#x22;Howard Lovecraft &#x26; theFrozen Kingdom&#x22;. On one hand then I think it was a nice enough way ofopening up the bizarre writings of H.P. Lovecraft to a young audiencethrough means of an animated movie, and without it being too weird andtoo heavy on the cosmic dread. But at the same time, then I feel thatthis animated movie, while having the heart at the right place, hardlydid the writings of H.P. Lovecraft very little justice.<br><br>The storyline is easy to follow, and even my six year old son wasentertained enough by watching it, at least to the point of hisattention not drifting away from the animated movie and the story.<br><br>However, what I think was the biggest anchor around the animated moviewas the CGI and the textures. It just looked like the movie was halfwaydone. The textures were blank and featureless, making it appear thatthe CGI department hadn&#x27;t had time to go over the finished product tofill in all that was missing. As such, then it just felt like watchinga half-finished animated movie.<br><br>When talking about an animated movie, then voice acting is also a verycrucial factor. And without proper voice acting, then the animatedmovie suffers terribly. The voice acting in &#x22;Howard Lovecraft &#x26; theFrozen Kingdom&#x22; was mediocre. Sure, some were doing good jobs, but thenothers were doing half-hearted jobs and they were dragging everythingdown. But it was impressive with the names that they had managed to getaboard for this project; Ron Perlman, Christopher Plummer, Jane Curtinand the iconic Doug Bradley.<br><br>I am a huge fan of the immortal writings of H.P. Lovecraft andeverything Lovecraftian in general. And I can now check this 2016animated movie off the list and say that I have seen it. It wasn&#x27;t amemorable experience, not by a long shot. And it is not an animatedmovie that has enough contents to sustain more than a single viewing,provided you manage to sit through it to the end of course.<br><br>In overall, then &#x22;Howard Lovecraft &#x26; the Frozen Kingdom&#x22; was a mediocreanimated movie which definitely could have prospered from more levelsof detail in textures and CGI. It scores a meager and mediocre five outof ten stars from me.

I was intrigued by the idea, especially given it is October and it hassuch people as Plummer &#x26; Pearlman attached to it. I was aghast at theanimation. I thought maybe along the lines of Paranorman but Wow no.Very badly written. Too much for kids, too horrible for anyone olderthan 14. Maybe the animation was what failed. I used to work in theindustry back in the 90&#x27;s &#x26; this would have been great- until about1995. Sorely disappointing. I give them 1 star for the attempt &#x26; 2 morefor the acting talent. I almost want to take 11 stars off just for theamateurishness. Read your kids Neil Gaman&#x27;s Graveyard Book or re watchsomething better made like Paranorman instead of this weak film.Seriously.

First off, let me say that it was suggested this production companyadds positive reviews for their work. Keep that in mind. Judge foryourself if this is the case by the dates the reviewers joined.<br><br>Now to the review: I did enjoy this film more than I should have. Ireally liked it. Why? This is probably one of the best (only) Lovecraftstories for children that I&#x27;ve seen. The other notable and best was&#x22;The Real Ghostbusters&#x22; Cthulhu episode. What works: The animationstyle is charming, relaxed and easy to see. Lots of contrasts enableyou to follow the action without distraction. The talent: Fantasticallyvoiced by the actors, notably young Howard. The themes: reasonablyloyal to Lovecraft&#x27;s characters - but obviously you can&#x27;t do that andstill have a children&#x27;s&#x27; show. I liked the compromises made. Theartistic designs - wonderfully modelled characters do a nice job ofmaking you feel the 1920&#x27;s feel. <br><br>What does not work: The actual animation - several times I saw treesfloating in air, parts of the ground missing (though this could havebeen deliberate). The flow seems a bit jerky at times, but I don&#x27;timagine this picture had a massive hardware budget, so it&#x27;s forgivable.This has the feel of being created around the same time as &#x22;StarshipTroopers - Roughnecks&#x22;. The voice of Spot: very, very badly voiced by aproducer. No inflections, difficult if not impossible to understand formost of the show. You might as well remove all of Spot&#x27;s dialog andjust have him grunt. The pacing: This show could have used theexperience of a professional director / editor and chopped about 30-45minutes out of it. The action pauses so many times during the &#x27;intense&#x27;scenes that it&#x27;s like they tried to lengthen the film by adding 10seconds every minute. Perhaps the distributes demanded it be a certainlength and they simply didn&#x27;t have the content. The price: This is ashow I think you should buy - but only as a $5 digital download.Currently its price-point is excessive and preventing widespread sales.I hope the producers make this change before it is downloaded for freevia torrents. <br><br>Overall this is something that should have been sold on STEAM, notdestined for theatres. It does not have broad appeal and selling it asa $20 bluray is a pipe-dream.<br><br>That being said, I&#x27;d love to see this as a television series. I thinkit would be reasonably well received. Like I say, I really enjoyed it,but I&#x27;m starving for new HP Lovecraft content and this will have to do.